Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

quite an entertaining first 45

both sides have been pretty open, so it's gone end to end a fair bit.

Harry Maguire keeps trying his best to gift Brazil a goal, but they keep spurning the chances... 2, I think

Paqueta must surely be subbed at half time, because he's a red card waiting to happen atm. It took 2 fouls on Gallagher and then 2 more on Bellingham for the ref to yellow card him and he then immediately fouled Bellingham again. Bellingham for his part brought Bruno down early on and got yellowed immediately, so he's pretty disgruntled with the refereeing as things stand. He needs to be careful that the ref doesn't take umbrage with all the reminders of how many times each player has been fouling him. It wouldn't be the first time that a player who keeps getting hacked down every few minutes ends up getting sent off for complaining about it too much

hopefully the endless substitutions in the second half won't ruin what has been a good game up until now

second half petered out once the changes started to be made, as these things do. I thought 0-0 was nailed on, until Brazil scored in the 80th minute. Hey ho. Clearly I no longer have any understanding of the current offside law, because I still don't know why the scorer wasn't a yard offside

It matters not. It was a decent enough game from two understrength sides, although the paper aeroplane throwers were at work again... with no just cause tonight... just a few tossers (pun intended). Maybe it's become a 'thing'?

People will argue that Endrick wasn't directly interfering with play, but once he makes the offside run and forces defenders away from the run of Vini Jnr, how can that not be changing the dynamic of that passage of play? For me it should be offside.

Pacqueta was very lucky to stay on the field, because the last of his fouls on Bellingham was a clear second yellow.... but I am also all for referees being leinent in friendly matches, and personally prefer we go back to the old standard of referees politely asking a player to be subbed off in such situations, rather than pull out red cards.... of course, if its a bruce lee kick you have to send them off, but for small infringements like that I dont have a problem with the ref showing a bit of empathy.

On a whole, it felt like there was no surprises for England. Gallagher was meh. Maguire was terrible. Chilwell didn't suddenly burst into form and wasted 4 good positions by twice blasting the ball into the stratosphere, and twice looping a cross 10 yards over Watkins head. The sad thing is, it appeared that England are only as good as their weakest parts.... Maguire will cost us goals in the Euros, and Gallagher will slow the midfield play down.

For me, get Bellingham in the 8 slot, and put Maddison in at 10. We dont have much quality to partner with Rice, and while Bellingham is a goal threat, I;d rather sacrifice his goal potential for his clinical passing in that central slot, than him standing not getting the ball in any useful situations. Maybe in the future Mainoo is the answer, but Southgate isnt going to have the balls to start him, and he is raw.

Jarred Bown came on and did a good job. Wouldnt have hurt his chances because Watkins was a complete non-entity in the game.

And unless half our squad is crippled in a Munich air disaster scenario, why oh why is Rashford getting anywhere near this team at the minute? He's been rubbish this season, bang out of form.... and suitably his late cameo of 20-25 minutes was exactly what you expect. In the 95th minute as the clock ran out, he had 4 men in the box and just stood there not putting the ball in. Poor lads confidence is shot.

I thought Gallagher was bright in the first half. Quick to the press, bags of effort and made such a nuisance of himself that he kept being brought down for England free kicks in dangerous areas.

Best players on the pitch last night were Bellingham and Vinicius Jnr..... by a mile, I think

Durhamfootman wrote:I thought Gallagher was bright in the first half. Quick to the press, bags of effort and made such a nuisance of himself that he kept being brought down for England free kicks in dangerous areas

Gallagher is one of those players that old fashioned pundits love, because he has little football intelligence, but he runs around a lot. Like he has all season, he goes straight for the ball and drops shape all the time, and allows teams opportunities to have space. And he's a total non-entity with the ball when he isn't given bags of space or time.

He's also a total liability in the tackle..... his fouls per game this year has been utterly legendary, he leads the PL in fouls by an absolute country mile.

I don't think he's a terrible player, but England are guaranteed to face rigid defence for the whole of the tournament. We need players who can release the ball upfield quicker.... and he's been pants in a lot of matches for Chelsea this year.

Maguire is being rested for the Belgium game tomorrow. I mean, he's bound to be tired, after playing one game all month before his hour on Saturday

I didn't see the game yesterday, so I don't know whether the late goal was a lucky escape or a deserved draw

I know that England's worries atm seem to involve the defenders

Durhamfootman wrote:I didn't see the game yesterday, so I don't know whether the late goal was a lucky escape or a deserved draw
I know that England's worries atm seem to involve the defenders

I went. We created the most chances and both of their goals were individual errors, so I would say a deserved goal, not that I saw it as we went 5 minutes before the end. Mainoo was decent as was Bowen, who was very lively in the first half.
A decent ish game, given it was a friendly.

I hope you enjoyed it

To be honest I would have rather gone to see Wycombe vs Portsmouth in a competitive game of Football. The first half was decent but the second not so much and because I wanted to get back as early a possible, me and my son left early, therefore missing the equaliser. After all that we still waited 45 minutes for a train home. That's not to mention the expense of it all.
With that being said it was nice to see some world class players live. Bellingham was busy, though not great. Bowen impressed me as did Mainoo, although the hype is getting overblown.

No Rashford or Henderson in the provisional 33 man squad

neither deserve to be in the squad and can have no complaints. Shaw has made it despite missing almost the entire season and still not certain to be fit, but England are desperately poor in defence, which may explain it. No such worries in attack, so Grealish is a very lucky chap to make the squad, because he's probably had as bad a season as Rashford

England have so little strength in depth in the back four - the first picks are arguably all solid (Maguire notwithstanding), but the backup is pretty woeful.

Whereas we have such an embarrassment of riches up front it's a question of who you leave out.

bigfluffylemon wrote:England have so little strength in depth in the back four - the first picks are arguably all solid (Maguire notwithstanding), but the backup is pretty woeful

Which is why I find it insane that Southgate said he had not tried to contact Ben White to play, as White would solve so many issues for the squad with his quality and flexibility. He does nothing 95% of the year waiting for international breaks, and yet didn't find 5 minutes in all that time for a quick phone call to confirm if White was willing to play? White could have said no, and maybe the relationship is impossible to repair, but if I were England manager I Would be ringing him every squad announcement to extend the olive branch and try to get him back. Simply saying "As far as I am aware he is unavailable".... what? You are frigging England manager, do you not think its worthwhile to maybe find that out?

I guess the whole situation speaks volumes about Southgate's approach as manager. White's club manager, considered as the best young coach in world football and a hand picked protégé of arguably the greatest coach of all time, has in the past singled out Ben White's attitude for praise. Perfect player to coach and manage says Arteta.... says "he trains everyday like he is playing a Champions League final tomorrow".... loved by the fans for never leaving anything on the pitch, loved by his coach for being a perfect dressing room player.

Goes to Southgate's England, and gets his character dismantled by some nobody whose footballing career involved never getting on the bench for a fourth division regional Swedish side based in the Arctic, and a few substitute appearances at the might Hyde United.

In fairness to Ben, if I were a model professional playing CL football and competing for titles in the best league in the world, and some guy who couldn't literally get a game in a pub team at his peak decided to give me a lecture about my attitude, I think I would have chinned him

Its why I despair about Southgate and the current England setup. The rest of the world look at our side and sh*t their pants, and we go into the tournament as favourites, even French tv is quaking in their boots at our side recently, and had England favourites in the last WC game to beat them. And while the world scratch their heads and cant understand how we lost to one of Italy's worst teams ever, or a Croatia side with one world class player and 10 rather average ones, we give Southgate praise and thank him for failing.

Its not even like he is a great man manager either. The White situation proves that. Just because Ben grew up in a family that hated football, and is himself no football tragic that talks about it all the time and treats it as a job rather than a passion, he gets his reputation publicly executed by Southgates team?

Not sure many people love what they do, but it doesn't mean they dont try to their best abilities. He is 100% perfect professional..... its just a really crazy situation.